How long should your treatment be?
I’ve been running my Exciting Treatments workshop for over ten years now, and one of the first questions I’m asked is alway, How long is a treatment supposed to be?
film
Just one trick for screenwriting success
How can the most successful video on YouTube help you find screenwriting success?
If you want to sell your script, don’t get stuck on the bridge
IS YOUR SCRIPT STUCK ON THE BRIDGE? Back from holiday, I’ve been thinking about a massive underpublicised reason why far too many writers don’t sell. If you’re a writer, then you want to sell your…
One question that will help you sell your script
What is the key question you need to ask to sell your script? The right question follows soon. First here’s the wrong question.
Why do we call them Screen – Plays?
Want your script to stand out from the crowd? Want it to be read from cover to cover and passed from hand to hand? It’s time to discover your inner playfulness. Playfulness is not the…
A Clever, Sneaky Way To Hide Exposition
The ability to handle exposition really sorts the professionals from the wannabes, and I’m going to share one of my top exposition techniques with you here.
Pitching: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Where do you fit the emotion into the cold hard-nosed job of pitching?
Nothing beats the lessons of production
You can’t beat what you learn when your script actually goes in front of the camera. Check out Tom Williams’ blog article on the filming of his script Chalet Girl – http://tomwilliamsscreenwriter.blogspot.com/2011/01/lessons-from-production.html Great article.
Plan now for Cannes
Cannes is the biggie: a week at Cannes is worth a year at film school. And there’s things you’ll learn there that you’ll never learn at school. But if you’re going this year, you need…
How not to sell your script
Last night I got a call from a company who I’d bought from before. The previous time, I spent good money with them – this time I put the phone down after a minute. What…
Writers’ Resolutions
Have you made a New Year’s Resolution? To start that script? Or finish it? To start selling the novel you finished? To get proper feedback? To write more? Or less? Do you really think you’re…
Ways to be a Great Writer: #3
Today we have an attribute that I didn’t recognise for a long time. When great artists of all kinds are discussed we usually get a load of blah about originality and spontaneity as if great…
Wave Your Wooden Leg
Here’s a screenwriting tip that will make your life so much easier. And before I get to it, just a word about difficulty. Many screenwriting books seem to want to make screenwriting hard – and…
Ways to be a Great Writer: #2
No writer can survive without it. It’s that crucial device that sits just between your ears and tells you when you’re coming up with crap.
How to be a screenwriting success – Not just 10,000 hours part 2
All great artists – writers, film-makers, musicians, etc – think outside the box. They learn the rules, and then they learn to master them and break them. They break them so effectively that they make…
A Sure-Fire Way Not To Sell Your First Script
I see loads of well-written scripts (and a fair load of badly written scripts too) and I’ve seen just about every fault that writers have ever invented. But there’s one flaw that stands out as…
The Kindest Cut
Here’s a tip that will work for just about every script, novel, short story, short film, movie or TV series.
How to make a drama out of a story
Having a problem writing a drama script? Do you find it’s full of wonderful character development but somehow it just doesn’t come together? Or you like it but your story isn’t getting across to the…